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but he did say that in 18 months he would start the draw down....one promise, i guess he's going to keep

"Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings..." Patrick Henry

As a result, starting next month, we will be able to remove 10,000 of our troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, and we will bring home a total of 33,000 troops by next summer, fully recovering the surge I announced at West Point.

When our idiot in chief took office, there were 32,000 troops there.

Today there is now 100,000 troops there.

Over the next year he will draw down 43,000 troops. Leaving 57,000 troops. Or 25,000 more then when he took office.

After this initial reduction, our troops will continue coming home at a steady pace as Afghan Security forces move into the lead.

Translation, if the Afghan forces don't step up, we won't bring them home. The draw down is dependent on this.

"Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings..." Patrick Henry

This is more of a paper move than anything. The next Brigade due to rotate home...just won't be replaced. Instead of sending four combat brigades on the next rotation...the DoD has announced only three for the upcoming rotation.

That right there cuts 5,000 soldiers form theatre. You do that for the next round in FY '12 and you've got your "10,000 soldier reduction".

This isn't some big grand move where you'll see long convoys of men and equipment heading to Kandahar to get shipped home...just units who'd been preparing to deploy standing down.

And by the way...Obama is doing this against the wishes of his top military advisors and Generals in the Pentagon.

The ability of the Afghan security forces to defend their own country is very fragile right now and Obama is pulling the plug on extra support right when they need it the most.

It's like pulling the training wheels off of your kids bike before they know how to ride on two wheels.